Description
Franchetti IGT Tenuta di Passopisciaro 2011
Franchetti is a wine made of petit verdot and cesanese d'Affile, planted at 1,000 meters/3,300 feet above sea level. On Etna, due to the volcanic soil, petit verdot becomes more peppery and spicy, leaner and stiffer in body, with high aromatics. Cesanese d’Affile, a grape from Lazio, is a more gentle, aromatic counter to the structure of the petit verdot, although with great aging potential. The result is a concentrated wine, black like the lavic soil and plumes of smoke that Etna belches forth: “This is the wine that comes from an attempt to make a completely different wine on Mt. Etna, to express what my image of Aetnean wine could be like.”
2013 VINTAGE
Throughout Italy, 2013 was a cold and delayed vintage, and Etna was no exception. The 2013 Franchetti is an intensely fruit-driven wine, the result of well-inspired winemaking after an overall cool year. It was difficult to get the grapes fully ripe, so the musts were very acidic when we received them in the winery.
The grapes of Franchetti, 100% petit verdot this year, were harvested at the beginning of November during a week when the northern face of the volcano had received an impressive amount of sun. The warmer weather came late in the season so the grapes remained small and hard, but healthy. We left them to ferment with a certain amount on the stems to enliven the musts and balance the acidity; this gave the wine a good vein of velvety tannins.
The skins were difficult to work, but by the end of fermentation the wine was dark, thick, and intense. We racked the wine into new barriques and left them on their lees, which tempered the acidic structure of the vintage and gave the wine a richness.
Smoky, earthy, dark spice and berry aromas. The rather light palate reveals flavors of nativity cherry, minerality and Mediterranean vanilla, along with vibrant acidity and tight tannins.
Origin:Etna, Sicily, Italy
Type:Red Wine
Grapes :100% Petit Verdot
Harvest: N/A
Vineyard age:13 years
Vineyard area: 2 hectares
Vineyard density:12,300 vines/Ha
Vineyard altitude:1,000 m asl
Yield per hectare:15 Hl/Ha
Spraying:Propolis, grapefruit seed extract, clay
Vinification:Fermentation in 30hl steel vats for 14 days
Aging:6 months in new French oak barriques and 14 months in large cement vessels
Bottling::waning moon of May 2015
Production:3000 Bottles
Alcohol:15.5%
Bottle Size : 750ml